Prisoner's Dilemma
by Valtil
Summary: Eggman finally manages to capture Sonic, the blue menace, and hopes to kill him in a new, rather ingenious way. When Metal doesn't kill him, though, like he expected, things start to go awry.
1. In which two hedgehogs wake up

**{.chapter 1.}**

_[in which two hedgehogs wake up, and one is pissed]_

He was acutely aware of a dull pain all throughout his body when he woke up. He let out a quiet groan as he opened his eyes - er, well, he thought he opened his eyes. Why was it so _dark_...? Usually he was pretty okay when it came to seeing in the dark, but it was like as if this place was completely devoid of light! And sound, evidently, but he could at least hear his own movements and breathing. To make sure he wasn't blind, he waved a gloved hand in front of his face - a flash of white. Okay. He wasn't blind and he wasn't deaf. He was probably fine. Except for the fact that his entire body was complaining as he sat up.

_I'm not even entirely sure what I __**did**__!_ It was only until he heard the sound of metal colliding with metal that he was starting to get a clue. _Oh-kay. Dark and I hear metal clattering around. Where have I heard that before? Oh, I know! Eggman's- wait a minute. Wait a minute._ Now it dawned on him. _I'm in one of his junkyards?_

Well, that didn't make a whole lot of sense, he quickly decided, but he couldn't match the area to any other place he could've possibly been. It was either that, or he was somewhere he had never been before, which was also perfectly plausible. _Now just... why am I..._ Actually, how did he end up here? He tried to jog his memory with anything that could've led up to this point, but his mind didn't give him any clues as to what the hell had happened besides the fact that... Robotnik was up to something, and...

...oh, great. He couldn't even remember. _But first things first, I have to get out. I can figure out all of that... uh, later._ Yeah, that sounded good.

But where to begin. Sonic decided to take another sweep around the room; if he was lucky, maybe he could get a glimpse of light and just head for that. He could also have just run around the room looking for a way out, but that would probably be self-defeating, taking longer than it would really have to and probably hurting himself more than he really needed at that time. He carefully stood up, wincing as his muscles complained about the movement, and his eyes glanced around.

Light, light... or something remotely resembling that... that'd be nice... 90 degree swipe to the left, nada. His 90 degree swipe to the right didn't show him much, either, and he couldn't see anything glancing behind his shoulders and- hey, wait, what was that? Ears pricking with interest, he glanced back over his right shoulder, noticing a tiny sliver of light that aided his vision slightly.

"This is almost too easy. It's like as if he's _begging_ me to escape," he muttered under his breath. Really, he wasn't too far off, but he was still a little baffled by this nonetheless. _He probably would want me to. So, let's go see what the good Doc's up to._

Albeit with a bit of unsteady stumbling about _{not unlike a drunk, for a good comparison}_, he managed to more or less keep himself upright, cursing and mumbling under his breath about his overall annoyance with the situation. When he reached the wall where there was a tiny sliver of light coming from it, he immediately began to push himself against it, one hand feeling around on it, with high hopes that he was pushing himself against a door. As it turned out, with another solid thud _{and not having found a way to open it up from his side, that was the only thing he could've done}_, it budged, and he applied a bit more force to it before slipping inside and immediately wincing.

Damn light. He adjusted rather quickly, but it still blinded him slightly; _I've been in there longer than I think I have, haven't I?_ It wouldn't surprise him. Actually, it kind of would, but nonetheless, he wasn't too shocked. He glanced around, shutting the door as he heard some scrap metal fall inside. "Eggman? You _suck_."

Seriously, whose idea was it to stick Sonic in what looked like a fairly abandoned part of Eggman's base? _Let alone that, who thought it was a good idea to stick me in his base __**at all**__ in the first place? He knows I'm gonna shred it anyway, heh..._ Not that it looked like there was anything to tear apart back here anyway; Sonic decided it would be his best bet to just explore the base as quickly as he could and with any luck, he'd run into some excitement.

~.x.~

He didn't, unfortunately. It was too bad, really; Sonic had been really looking forward to busting some robots. But if he couldn't do that now, he'd just do it later; surely he'd run into some poor, hapless 'bots along the way, but at this rate, he was seriously doubting the likelihood of that. Really: five or ten minutes without seeing a single robot? That was insanity, coming from Eggman! Unless that was planned, but last Sonic had checked, Eggman's planning was about as bad as the hedgehog's own, but at least he _tried_.

_And jeez, when did any of his bases have so many __**halls**__?_ He briefly wondered as he wandered through the strangely abundant _{and empty}_ halls of the base, and was glad that the lights were a _normal_ brightness now. Or had he gotten used to them? He wasn't sure, and it didn't matter. There weren't so many halls that it was a maze, and it was clear that there was a destination he was supposed to end up at here, and the more Sonic thought about it _{and to be honest, there really wasn't much else he could think about}_, the more he figured that this was a trap, probably a set-up. This didn't concern him.

It wasn't really a trap if he could see it coming from a mile away, right?

Well... that was the hope.

Of course, the problem with so many hallways and a clear destination was that Sonic had the horrible urge to disobey and wander a little. It couldn't be too bad, right? At any rate, there couldn't _possibly_ be any terrible repercussions for some exploration. He was bored, a dangerous thing for him to be, and- ooooh, was that a hallway with _doors_ lining it? That was the best thing he'd seen all day! This was really rather sad, even for him, he realized, but he ignored this, immediately heading down that hall.

After a few seconds, Sonic stopped in front of one particular door, though at the time, it didn't look like anything special. It just seemed like something important was in there, and that he should go and check it out. He slowly opened the door _{which was heavier than it looked, but maybe that was because it hadn't been used in a while, as after he did some manual tinkering with it, it would slide open without any difficulty}_ and peered inside, investigating the room. It was a dark room, and it looked like there were hardly any lights, save for the light coming in from the hallway and a pale green light bleeding through the darkness from the back wall. Curious now, he pushed the door open a bit more, taking one step inside and scanning even further for anything he might've missed.

His eyebrows shot up upon noticing that in the back of the room was a stasis pod, a control panel and screen just in front of it. He couldn't tell what was in the stasis pod from this distance, but he knew that _something_ was in there. Part of him wondered why Robotnik would've kept anything back here, where it seemed like no one had been here in ages, but maybe there was a reason. The other part of him was going, 'screw that, let's go in and see what's in here'. Both were perfectly valid points. So in he went, though it felt like something was urging him to go in, like it wasn't really his choice.

It was only when he reached the control panel that he started to wonder if this was a bad idea.

It was also by this point that he could tell _what_, exactly, was in the stasis pod beside the green liquid. A good chunk of his mind _{the smarter chunk}_ was telling him to turn around and leave - after all, the thing that was in there was Metal Sonic, the one and only robot that had always wanted to tear him apart from limb to limb. Well, the one and only robot he hadn't dismantled for whatever reason. _Just leave him alone,_ the sane, logical part pleaded. _He'll just try to kill you as soon as he gets out._

However true it was, Sonic found that his hands were already on the keyboard to put in the password... whatever that was. And though his mind was screaming at him to turn tail and run, it felt like as if his body was willing him to release the murderous robot that was trapped inside that pod.

Just as he was having second thoughts, he heard a voice.

_"Help me. Let me out, please..."_

"What in the...!" Sonic instantly looked for the source of the voice, glancing around and taking a step back, and then he glanced at the stasis pod. The voice belonged to Metal Sonic, he knew, but a close look told him that the robot appeared to be offline. _This makes no sense, not at all._ For one, the voice belonged to Metal Sonic, and secondly, the robot was pleading for him to-

-wait. _Pleading?_ That wasn't... that wasn't right.

Before he could figuratively spit in his robotic counterpart's eye, though, and ignore him, he was already trying to access the controls of the pod. Much to his surprise, he felt like he knew the password, and within seconds, he was viewing the controls of the console. To say the least, he was very surprised; he had never hacked one of Robotnik's computer's before, usually preferring to just smash them, which probably did more harm than good, but still. Usually it was Tails's job. Or Shadow's. Or the job of whoever else that was technologically inclined that was on his side at the time.

_But if Robotnik's computers are so easy to hack..._ Yep, Sonic didn't pay the strange knowledge even a bit of mind.

Now that he was in, though, it was time to see what he could get at. He first viewed Metal's vital signs _{wait a minute, he __**had**__ vitals? Like a pulse and respiratory rate and brain activity and... okay, Sonic wasn't even going to delve into that more than he had to}_, some technical mumbo-jumbo he had no way of understanding, and... aha! There it was! He'd been looking for the actual stasis pod controls; now he just had to find specific control he was looking for. Shut down... no... eradicate contents... no, but he was sure considering it... where was it... where was it...

_How hard is it to find a "open stasis pod" command?_ Sonic thought in annoyance, ears folding back before they shot right back up. There it was! 'Open stasis pod'. Excellent.

_This is a bad idea!_ His mind warned one last time. _Get out!_

Logically, he knew that it was really the best idea, but he kept on going, confirming the command and taking a few steps back, watching the command commence. The green-colored liquid in the stasis pod was draining away into some unseen compartment, and the being inside twitched as the liquid fell away, passing the head and arms. By the time the robot had taken off what looked like an oxygen mask, the liquid was nowhere to be seen. The glass door in front of it slid away to the side.

The robot inside _{well, Sonic was pretty sure it was a robot, but with all those vital signs, he wasn't so sure}_ fell to the ground, having pushed himself out of the pod, and to be safe, Sonic jumped back what would've been a couple of steps. _Well, shoot. Do I run or what?_ A glance over his shoulder told him that the door was still open a good amount, and he knew he could probably get out no problem, but he wasn't really sure if that was a good idea or not. _Not that this was my best decision, either._

Not that he would've had enough time.

The robian glanced up, noticed Sonic, and within seconds, he found himself pinned against the wall. Glowing red eyes glared into shocked green ones, and Sonic squirmed slightly, feeling the claws on his neck dig into his flesh. "_You_," Metal snarled, eyes narrowing. Sonic felt a cold chill run down his spine. "Of all people, _you_ release me. Isn't that _just my luck_."

_Since when could he talk?_ He very briefly wondered before cracking a smile, any shock that he had before disappearing. "Nice to see you too, Mets. Since I'm not dead yet, are you gonna thank me?" His smile turned into what he _hoped_ was a charming grin, despite the fact that the robot's hand was wrapped around his throat and that he was pressed uncomfortably against the wall, not to mention probably seconds away from his death.

But it didn't come. Not yet. "Don't press your luck, hedgehog. I will not thank you, but I will not kill you. Yet." Metal's grip tightened slightly before he let go of Sonic, and he rubbed a hand against his neck, wincing. "You, like I, seem to have been captured by the doctor. He is my primary target at this time, as opposed to you."

Sonic blinked, not sure how, exactly, he was supposed to take this. Cool, he wasn't going to die today, but _why_ was Metal telling him this? "Uh... thanks? I guess?" Oh _man_, he did _not_ know how he was supposed to take any of this. "I don't know how you know that, but-"

"I hacked into Robotnik's system," Metal stated blankly.

"Yeah right whatever. Big whoop. Look, just- wait, what?" Sonic only then realized the implications of this, and though he felt nervous, nearing the door, he felt like he should ask. Metal following him and watching him closely, however, wasn't doing wonders for the hedgehog's current anxiety. "Hang on. If you hacked into his system, then you've got to know what he's planning, right?"

Metal glared at him, and he seemed like he was wondering whether or not he was going to answer this question, but then he shook his head. "No." They slipped out into the hall, and as they left, Metal snapped, "Now, stop asking questions. I am not here to assist you."

Sonic raised his hands up in surrender and shrugged. "Alright, alright. I'll quit bugging you as long as you don't kill me, but it was worth the thought." He got the feeling, though, that having a potentially murderous robot following him could probably be a dangerous thing, but so far, Metal hadn't killed him and that they shared a common enemy right now. He'd just keep one eye on Metal. However... "Hey. Why're you following me?"

The robot stared at him as if he were a moron. "Robotnik will likely be near the center of the base. I would like to kill him as soon as possible."

Sonic didn't even dare reply to that.

It became very quiet as they progressed through the inner workings of the base, which was apparently not nearly as abandoned as Sonic had originally thought. Occasionally he glanced back over his shoulder to watch Metal because he thought he heard metal pounding against metal _{only to find that he was just quickly becoming paranoid, especially since Metal was following behind him}_, but nothing particularly exciting happened as they wandered their way into a good-sized room. They didn't expect the room to hold anything in store for them. Not really.

The door they'd passed through slammed shut behind them.

They had been detected.

Robotnik's voice proceeded to boom from some hidden speakers inside the walls. "Ah, Sonic. You got out just in time - and you found Metal Sonic, I see!" Sonic's ears folded back at the doctor's absolutely gleeful voice. For some reason, though, he couldn't help but notice that it sounded a little... forced. Scripted, perhaps. The real Robotnik would be gloating more, would be arguing with the hedgehog as Sonic came up with some sort of witty comeback. "Unfortunately, hedgehog, you're too late. Do you think you can stop my next plan in... a day?"

"I bet I can," Sonic muttered.

* * *

Oh jeez, I haven't been back here in _ages_. So, yeah, this story probably seems really... well... not good, right now. The characters are kind of off _{a lot}_, I think, the plot's a little iffy, but... I'll do my best to make it good. So anything you guys have to say about it probably can't hurt.


	2. In which there is a mistake

**{.chapter 2.}**

_[in which there is a mistake, and an attempt is made to fix it]_

It wasn't too long before the trouble that Sonic was used to greeted them.

"Annnd _here_ comes the welcoming committee!" Sonic vaguely remembered cheering picoseconds before running headlong into battle. It was the standard horde of robots _{actually, it seemed larger than usual, but he liked it better that way}_, though it wasn't exactly up to par. Not that he would've noticed; he was too busy smashing them.

During one of the moments when he was in mid-air, he was surprised to see Metal attacking the horde as well, but he hardly had enough time to think much more about it when he curled into a ball, slamming into the chassis of the robot before, destroying it before moving on to the next.

_Yeaah! It's about time you guys came at us!_

The group was chopped in half in only a manner of seconds, much to Sonic's disappointment. The few remaining robots that he hadn't yet torn apart were being disassembled by Metal, who seemed not at all concerned with having four or five of them surrounding him. Honestly, Sonic didn't care enough to help the robot, only standing aside in the mess of scrap metal he'd made to watch the other. The moment didn't last long, as Metal stabbed both arms through the bodies of the robots, destroying any central processors contained within the torso of their attackers.

While some soft-spoken part of Sonic's mind might have been impressed, the rest of him wasn't at all surprised. The whole thing was a total let-down, seeing as the robots didn't seem too entirely recent, a fact which Metal readily remarked upon.

"He's resorted to using inferior models now?" Metal sneered, kicking at one of the shells. "These were forced out of commission five years ago."

"Well, that explains why they were so easy to destroy," Sonic muttered, frowning. He didn't really care why; Robotnik was probably just trying to stall him. Them. Whatever. It didn't matter, he decided. It just didn't.

"Indeed."

Sonic couldn't help but feel slightly pissed off at the fact that Metal dared to even _agree_ with him, but he pushed this aside. He knew that there was really no reason to be angry with that; at the very least, he'd save all of that for Eggman if he found him. _No, not if, __**when**__ I find him. There we go._ By then, Metal was already starting to walk off, and Sonic quickly caught up to him, matching him stride for stride.

Metal said nothing, and Sonic refused to speak.

~.x.~

"That didn't even _stall_ them!"

Of course, he hadn't realized that he had sent his worst robots until just _now_, and he didn't have anyone to blame for that little mishap right now except for himself. Muttering curses under his breath, Robotnik observed the two walk out of sight of the camera planted in that room, trying to figure out how exactly he was supposed to slow down their rather steady pace towards the central area of the base. It wasn't like he had made this base out to be a maze! Not to mention that he'd expected Sonic to be dead by now, but that obviously hadn't happened.

Curse the unpredictable A.I. Metal seemed to possess...

Oh well. On the other hand, that device he was making was coming along _very_ well. He knew that he should've had the new 'doomsday' device done well before today, but at least it wasn't going to decimate his base like those two rats were going to in... oh, probably a few minutes unless he thought of something _good_. "Bah! It won't even be done being constructed until-" Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted one of his robots standing near the wall, more or less inattentive. "-Shadow android Alpha."

"Yes, Doctor Robotnik?" The yellow-quilled hedgehog android opened one eye, turning his attention to the doctor.

Robotnik gave a wry smirk. He had his distraction. "I have a task for you. Take Mecha Knuckles with you..."

~.x.~

He was proud knowing that he had stubbornly stayed silent for a good five minutes, stewing in his really rather silly and stupid irritation towards the robot. Really, it wasn't like he had a reason, but he wasn't about to be a-okay with the situation, either. But he did realize that really, this was just making a turn for the plain idiotic. Oh well.

Metal had just finished hacking the door, Sonic took their period of silence, though, to observe their new surroundings. They had gotten into what appeared to be a lab - or maybe it was a factory. Or maybe a lab-factory. Truthfully, he didn't know and he didn't care what it was, other than it just looked very scientific-y and kind of like something Robotnik would've built. Albeit a long, long time ago, but still. Sonic was surprised it was even _functioning_; from only a quick glance around, he could see weaponry and robots being constructed, and there was probably more than just that, though he wasn't keen on finding out what.

Behind him, Metal seemed pleased with their current location. It was either that, or he was already hatching a plan in... wherever plans hatched in that head of his. It could've been both, but Sonic figured that Metal was much more likely to be scheming. "How could it even be possible for a _genius_..." Sonic heard Metal mutter to himself, but when Metal had caught up with him, the thought was all but forgotten. The robian was silent, studying the area as he thought, and after a minute or so, began to speak. "...hedgehog."

Sonic frowned, turning his head to give Metal the most annoyed look he could muster. "This 'hedgehog' has a name, you know."

Metal ignored this comment, instead taking it only as proof that Sonic was indeed listening to him, whether he actually wanted to or not. "Hedgehog," he started once more, and though Sonic looked like he was going to protest, he continued on, "We must divide and conquer. I will hack into the master control program. You will destroy the facilities while I do so. Like sabotage, if you will."

This had been said like as if he actually _expected_ the other to obey him, but he didn't appear to be at all surprised when Sonic immediately began to question him. "Hey, who made you leader of this little escapade?" he hissed, glaring at the robot. "Besides, what good is sabotage going to do us?"

"It will render the base useless in the future. Additionally, we have more than enough time, so why not." Sonic frowned; he had a point, and even if Metal hadn't said anything, he still would've wrecked the place, but to hear the idea as an order... he looked away.

"Fine. You start hacking, I start wrecking." He paused for a moment before tacking on, "But don't you _dare_ think I'll do what you say because you said so." _Even though I'd probably be doing it if you hadn't._

"I expected nothing less."

Sonic just took a deep breath, staring at Metal with a blank _{but vaguely annoyed}_ expression, and this stare was returned for a few seconds before the robot decided enough was enough and jogged off to find a computer in this mess of a place. He stood in place for a few seconds longer, watching the robot go, before exhaling and shaking his head. Wrecking some of Eggman's machinery would _really_ do him some good right about now.

~.x.~

It didn't take even three minutes for Metal to find the computer, and by now, he had set up a proxy server to bypass any firewalls and security that he was bound to find. Hacking in would be easy - he had done it several times to the point where he hardly had to focus on it anymore. The hard thing would be finding the information he wanted, not to mention staying in until he acquired it _{if he wasn't discovered, that is}_. It probably would've been easier if he was just looking for vital information; the base blueprints, doomsday device information, the like. However, he was also hoping to go through security camera records, if he wasn't caught before then.

But first, he was going to go find the vital files and just avoid detection up until then. However, the firewall programs seemed to be more advanced than last time, giving him a bit more trouble and less time to search. Luckily, it didn't take too long to find the blueprints of the base. Now he just had to look for any files about the device, and... wow, it was taking a lot less time to download that file than he'd expected.

_Downloading 'Egg-base #9 blueprints'... 41%_

Metal blinked, going through the files as quickly as he could. There wasn't any information on the doomsday device; nothing substantial that he could use, or even piece together, really. _That's almost __**intelligent**__, coming from Robotnik. I will have to find the central computer from this one, should that be possible._ But not right now; judging from the sounds of destruction going on and the fact that he didn't have much time left before he would likely be discovered, he would have to leave the extraneous data search for another time.

_Downloading 'Egg-base #9 blueprints'... 78%_

Now if only he could quicken the rate at which he was downloading the file. _Quicker. Now. Please._ He only had a few seconds left before it was dangerous to remain connected. _Download complete._ Finally. Disconnecting as soon as the file had been copied over to him, he shut down the computer, hoping that forcing himself off would erase proof of him being there, but if not that, then at least it would shut off the subset programs and aid in the sabotage.

However, it sounded like Sonic was done wrecking the place. It was much quieter now, and Sonic was nowhere to be seen amongst the wreckage, which wasn't nearly as impressive as it sounded. Some of the machines were busted, some bits of scrap metal here and there... it was just rendered useless, which was good, if there was anything that would be slowed down by this loss. But now the hedgehog had disappeared. Wonderful.

...or not, judging from the sounds of a battle going on somewhere within the lab.

"...I'd... see you... that again! Faker...!"


End file.
